Sumner, Charles

1852 - His long service as a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, however, that he exercised his major influence on history.

1856 - On the 19th and 20th of May, he denounced the “Crime against Kansas” as “in every respect a swindle” and characterized its authors, Senators Andrew P. Butler and Stephen A. Douglas, as myrmidons of slavery.

1861 - Sumner was chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

- He helped preserve peace between Britain and the United States by persuading President Lincoln to give up Confederate commissioners James M. Mason and John Slidell after their capture aboard the “Trent” in November.

1872 - In a move for magnanimity toward the defeated South, Sumner introduced a Senate resolution providing that the names of battles between fellow citizens should not be placed on the regimental colours of the U.S. Army.